1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to a vibration damper, consisting of a damping element and a pneumatic spring, where the damping element has a container tube, a fastening part, and a piston rod, and where the pneumatic spring consists of a spring bellows acting as a roll bellows, an outside tube connected to the mass whose vibrations are to be minimized, and a roll-over tube carrying a roll-over profile. The spring bellows forms one boundary of a spring space filled with a pressurized gas, whereas the roll-over tube seals off the gas space from the container tube and is fastened thereto.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vibration dampers of the type indicated above are used, for example, on the suspension of a truck chassis to isolate the body of the vehicle as much as possible from the vibrations passed in the chassis from the street via the wheel suspensions. The outer tube of the pneumatic spring and the piston rod of the damping element are connected to the vehicle body and to the chassis, respectively, where the action of the pneumatic spring depends on the size of the gas space, on the pressure prevailing in the gas space, on the distance between the outer tube and the roll-over tube, and on the shape of the roll-over profile on the roll-over tube. Whereas the problem of how to seal off the gas space from the atmosphere is solved by the use of an O-ring between the roll-over tube of the pneumatic spring and the container tube of the damping element, the design which has been used so far includes a support ring, which is produced by a cutting operation. Such a ring can be produced only with considerable effort in terms of the fabrication technology involved, and it must then be connected to the container tube. A contour of the roll-over tube can now be supported and/or centered on the support ring. The larger the number of units in the series, however, the greater the need for economizing and for a more reliable way to deal with the above-mentioned support point for the roll-over tube on the container tube.